<< Front page News February 13, 2004

Abolition debates revisited

On any given day on Oberlin’s campus, students and faculty engage in debates both formal and informal about virtually any issue on the world stage today. Last Friday, however, the subject of the heated argument at First Church was one that hasn’t been a political issue in America for over a century.

Oberlin President Nancy Dye and history professors Carol Lasser and Gary Kornblith gathered in period costume to reenact the Lane Debates, a discussion over the morality of slavery and the rights of African-Americans. The debates marked both a milestone in the history of the abolition movement and genesis of Oberlin’s reputation for progressive politics. Six students helped to organize the event and educate local high schoolers about the subject over Winter Term.

In 1834, Oberlin was little more than three buildings in the middle of a northern Ohio swamp, when events at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati helped to put the college squarely on the map.

The Lane Rebels were a group of abolitionist Lane students who chose to leave the school after being banned from publicly airing their political views, considered radical at the time. They agreed to come to Oberlin provided that the college open its doors to African-American students.

An additional incentive for the College to accept was the promise of a significant financial gift from the wealthy Tappan family and the arrival on campus of the legendary evangelical preacher Charles Grandison Finney.

The following year Oberlin became the first fully integrated college in the country and the town of Oberlin became the center of the radical wing of the abolitionist movement.

“It was one thing to take a stand against slavery, but to say that everyone was equal and should be treated with equal rights and respect as Oberlin did was very radical at the time,” Juliet Libes, a recent Oberlin Graduate who assisted with the project, said.

Oberlin was at the forefront of the civil rights movement throughout the nineteenth century. Famed black intellectual W.E.B. DuBois even went so far as to say that, “about half the educated black folks are educated at Oberlin.”

The reenactors were all historians from colleges and universities throughout the country. Since there are no written record of the debates the performers improvised their parts based on what was known about the views and personalites of their characters. While there was a strong emphasis on the authenticity of the recreation, certain liberties were taken.

“My character, Catherine Beecher, was definitely there but would probably not have spoken at all,” President Dye said. “It was very unusual for women to speak in public at the time and if they wanted to ask a question they would have had to do it through a guy.”

In the audience were over 300 high school students bussed in from as far away as Columbus to be at the event. It was the job of the Oberlin student volunteers to educate the high school students about the debates beforehand so they would be able to participate in the proceedings.

“It was great to see high school kids get involved and ask questions and really challenge all the PHDs onstage,” junior Braden Paynter said.

Many of the college students became involved the project through Lasser’s Oberlin History as American History course.

“At one point she told the class, anyone who’s looking for a winter term project on this subject come see me, so I volunteered,” sophomore Liz Harrison said.

All the students took something different away from the experience all left with a greater appreciation of Oberlin’s progressive legacy.

“Slavery at that time was the most powerful social and economic institution in the country and these people out in the middle of nowhere decided they were going to take it down,” Paynter said. “A lot of people here today say they want to change the world so looking at what unfolded here can make you feel a lot less alone.”

Even after 170 years students feel that some things haven’t changed.

“One of their favorite things to say to their opponents was “we’re praying for you.” Libes said. “The school has changed a lot but it seems like that self-righteousness is still there.


 
 
   

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